The annual Royal-Thomian tennis encounter for the E.F.C. Pereira Challenge Trophy will be played today at the SLTA courts, Greenpath commencing from 8.30 am. The trophy donated by D.L. Seneviratne (Old Royalist and former president of the SLTA) is named in memory of E.F.C. Pereira who was a teacher at Royal College for 20 years and thereafter a teacher at S. Thomas' for a further 18 years. He was the teacher in charge of tennis at both schools.

This is the ninth encounter in the series and Thomians have won the trophy for the very first time last year. The winner of the under 19 tie will be awarded the trophy. There will also be an under 15 and under 13 age group ties as well. Each tie consists of three singles and two doubles matches.

The Royal College team is captained by Udistaran Raviraj and the other key players are Danushka Abeywardena and Eroo Samarasinghe.

The S. Thomas' team is led by Venuka Hulangamuwa while the junior ranked players in their team included Avishka Perera and Jerique Rajapaksha.

S. Thomas will be the favourites with their recent victory in the National School Games. Royal are expected to provide stiff opposition as they were the under 19 Public Schools' Tennis Champions.

Therefore a keen tussle is expected. The Royalists are coached by Sylvester Francis whilst Anjuna Anthony is the coach of the S. Thomas' team. The prize distribution will be at 12.30 pm. The chief guest will be former Davis Cup Manager Dijen De Seram who has captained Thomian tennis in 1969 and also won cricket colours in 1968 and 1969. The referee for the tournament will be J.M. Dharaka Ellawela. The Principal Sponsor of this year's encounter is Standard Chartered Bank.
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The Royal vs. Thomian annual Under-19 tennis encounter, which ended on Nov. 9 at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association, Colombo, was won by S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. The dual was held in three age groups; namely Under-13, 15 and 19. The Under-19 age group winners, S. Thomas’, received the E. F. C. Pereira Challenge Trophy for the second consecutive time in nine years. Royal has emerged victorious in the seven years the tournament held before. (Pic by Kamal Wanniarachchi)